Kidnappers, Child Soldiers, Corrupt Politicians, oh my!
I, Who Possessed a Trash Skill [Thermal Operator], Became Unrivaled. Or Thermal Operator for short, was a light novel written by Nabeshiki. It was published between 2018 and 2019, and later got a manga adaptation in 2019.
Associated Tropes:
- Academy of Adventure: The schools that teach [Talent] students how to use their powers safely, all of them, are this, by design.
- Beneath Notice: The truth about the [F] ranked school that the main character is sent to is to hide particularly valuable [Talent] students from the many, many people who have less than wholesome intentions for them until such time as they've mastered their powers and can take care of themselves. Unfortunately, a Corrupt Politician who has a grudge with the principal forces their hand...
- Child Soldier: A flashback shows one of the teachers of the [F] ranked school was a soldier in the war, as a ten-year-old girl, and the story does not shy away from the horrors involved in such an experience.
- Crapsaccharine World: As lampshaded by the synopsis, the world ten years after what sounds like WWIII looks at peace, with some people having nifty super-powers, but the nine [Site] are in a state of cold-war, vying for supremacy over each other, national sovereignty is only a courtesy, for the sake of form over function, and if your [Talent] is too eye-catching, the threat of kidnapping, human experimentation, or becoming a Child Soldier is very, very high, as is revealed in chapter 5 of the manga adaptation, with the main character and a female classmate being grabbed, in broad daylight, right at the front gates to their high-school!
- Heart Is an Awesome Power: While many of the [Level 1] powers are officially not "useful", a bit of clever application can make them a force to be reckoned with. For example, one of the students has the ability to make cherry blossom petals that can cut you. Sure, one petal is no big deal, but how about countless numbers of them.
- Lethal Harmless Powers: Most of the powers of the [F] rank students are officially listed as "useless" by the Japanese government. This is, at best, exaggerated. With a bit of clever application, many of these powers are literally lethal. The main character's the most obvious of these.
- Rape as Drama: In Chapters 5 and 6 of the manga adaptation, the protagonist is chained up in a room, Forced to Watch as the men who kidnapped him and a female classmate have her tied up and are planning to "punish" her for resisting by raping her before their boss showed up. Fortunately for both of them, his Thermal Operation [Talent] turns out to be way, way more dangerous than advertised, and all the would-be rapists were beaten within an inch of their lives.
